The Portland daily press., 1887-02-07
HOW 1T HAPPENED.
The Train Hurled into the River by
Broken Rail-

Inc lFdtn f1ufi0u INTO the RIVER pf
Broken Rail.
The Montreal express which left Boston at
o'clock p. m. Saturday evening arrived at
this place about 1890 o'clock a. m. Here it
connected with the Connecticut River rail-
road from Springfield and took sleeper and
a coach from it. At 2.10 o'clock a. m. the
Central Vermont started out from the juno
tion for Montreal with the following train
Engine. baggage, mail. two coaches and the
Pullman sleepers-St. Albans and Puritan
making six cars in all. The St. Albans came
from Springfield, while the Puritan came
from Boston The engineer of the train was
Mr. Charles Pierce of White River Junction,
and the conductor was Mr.. Smith Sturte-
want of st. Albans, VT, one of the oldest
and best known conductors on the road
The train was about getting up to its full
speed. when, about 20 rods or so from the
bridge which crosses White River, the last
car, the Puritan, struck broken rail, left
the track and went humping along AS it
reached the bridge, which, by the way, is $50
feet long, this last car started off in a diago-
nal direction over the edge of the structure,
and then with terrific jump it plunged into
the darkness oyer the side, dragging the
three cars ahead of it over also, and all four
struck with violence enough to shatter them
to pieces upon the ice of the river, fully 80
feet below. The Puritan struck end first and
crushed together like an accordian, while the
other three struck on their sides. The rest
of the train, engine, baggage and mail cars
kept right along on the track and passed on
the the other side of the bridge where they
came to a stop. 1t is impossible to describe
the terrible scenes which occurred among
the debris Of the four wrecked cars upon the
ice below. No word description could give
it justice. A hundred persons, the most Of
them sleeping soundly in their berths, dream
ing, perhaps, of friends left behind, or of
those they expected to meet ON the morrow,
crushed, mangled and iammed in the broken
| fragments of the cars, only realized that ar
accident had occurred, and that they must
make desperate struggle for life-that is
those few who survived the first terrible
shock, for o large number must have been
| killed at once. AS soon as the first sicken-
| ing crash was over, the pitiful cries of the
| wounded men and women awoke the echoes
Of the snow-covered hills but there was no
response to to their frantic appeals for help.
First to the Rescue.
The first to the rescue of the passengers in
general were Engineer Charles Pierce and
his fireman. According to his story, the first
| he knew of the accident was when he felt a
| pull and then an ease up on the engine. He
| surmSed at once that an accident had hap
pened, but he did not realize what it proved
to be. He Immediately stepped to the door
| of his cab and looked back at the train. He
saw the last car, the Puritan, leave the track
| in diagonal direction just before the train
came to the bridge. He sprang to the
throttle of his engine to make it come to an
instant stop. Then he heard sickening
crash, and he knew that the cars had gone
over the bridge. In few minutes the engine
| and the two cars came to standstill. In
stantly Engineer Pierce and his fireman got
off, and armed with shovels, they hurried
down the embankment to the mass OF
| broken timbers, which were formerly cars
that lay upon the icy mass below the bridge
The sight then presented was most terri
BILE one.
Extrlcating the Wounded.
By the time they reached the imprisoned
passengers the wreckage was all afire They
hurried to the first coach, and there discov
cred Conductor Sturtevant pinned down un
der weight of timbers. They sprang Il
his rescue instantly and bravely sough
to free him. They broke one car window
to get at him, but in vain. They tried anoth
er with the same success. Then they ham
mered away at the frame of a third, and thi
time they got to him. Each got hold of al
arm and pulled and hauled for all they wer,
worth, but they could not stir him. Th'
flames began to get dangerously near, and 81
they stopped pulling upon Sturteyant ant
began shovelling snow upon the fire in tn,
hope that possibly they might extinguisl
the flames, or, at least, stay their progres
until they could extricate him. But tn,